Happy bunny day. Today we are spending the afternoon in Dubai. The ship is docking at noon, so we have the whole morning to hang out as we wait to arrive in port. Again, today is the HoHo bus, which we plan to use as we did in Muscat – city tour with minimal if any hopping off spots.
We are planning to have a late breakfast so we can be out on the pier first thing, but as this is Easter, they have opened up the buffet early for a grand Easter brunch. It’s nice with all the trappings, including chocolate Easter candy. Yay! We’ll be grabbing some of those candies and saving them for later in the cruise, thank you.
We’re still not feeling 100%, so we are planning to stay in town only for one HoHo run. Safer that way – at least for me and my condition that is. We had also been debating whether or not to stay in town longer and try to go up into the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. It is really pricey – about $50 US each, so we weren’t all that keen - but the view is said to be spectacular. As we are sailing in though, the sand in the air and the heat conversion make for a hazy, soupy sort of day and we are very, very glad we didn’t cave in and pre-buy tickets to the viewing area. You won’t be able to see anything clearly up there – so we’re happy to be staying grounded – literally.
As soon as we dock, and the officials have cleared us,
we’re off the ship fairly quickly, and we follow the tour groups to the HoHo bus. We don’t make it on bus 1, which is fine by us because there don’t appear to be any seats whatsoever on that bus – and we want to be inside in the a/c. We are one of the first on bus 2, though, which is perfect. We grab our seats downstairs and wait until the bus fills up with the tour folks. This bus will serve as the shuttle to the Dubai Mall where we will connect with the Red or Green line HoHo bus.
It takes about 30 minutes to get to the mall, where we have to circle the parking lot twice before finding a space to park the bus. But once there, the Red line City Tour bus is waiting and available, so we hop on and grab our coveted downstairs, inside seats. Then it’s off on a 2 hour tour of the city of excess.
We circle the Burj Khalifa and the associated lakes and fountains at its base.
We pass by some bizarre street art/sculpture. Weird silver scraggly tree looking things cemented into the sidewalk. Haven’t got a clue!
Past the Dubai opera house and then out toward Dubai Creek and the museums and old souks. Here though is where we encounter trouble – traffic. Oh my gosh. We get stuck in a horrendous jam that takes 45 minutes to get through. It’s frustrating, but then again, that’s why we’re not hopping off anywhere – and it just gives us more justification for not doing the other tour routes out to see The Palm island or other sites on the green tour.
We finally breakthrough and sit back to watch the city and the high rises pass by our windows. The most interesting thing on the tour were the Dhows. They were the oldest, ricketiest looking things – and all had huge parcels and boxes and bags piled up on the dock waiting to be loaded. You wouldn’t think these things would float, let alone sail all the way to India – but they do. That was wild – no good photos though….they were too close and when by too quickly to snap.
We pass by the souks, with a ton of people getting off at the Gold souk. Nah, no shopping for us. Then we stop at the Wafi mall – where everyone online said you just had to go. It’s a mall, for heaven’s sake. And a fake looking one at that – it’s all fake carved sandstone with lions and Egyptian mummies on the outside. It’s like Vegas – all fake.
After Wafi, we finally complete the circuit and end up back at the Dubai Mall – and our 2 hour tour has actually taken 3 hours and 45 minutes. No way we are getting on another bus – except for the bus back to the ship at 5pm.
We do have a little time to spare though, so we wander through the mall (hitting the restroom of course), look at the aquarium for a bit…
…and then go out side to the lake and fountains – which aren’t going yet – not until after 6:00pm, and the huge towers being constructed all around…
….stop at a candy store to compare prices (pricey) but have to applaud them for their view on life…
….and then go back out to wait for the shuttle bus. Of course the bus turns into a scrum to get on. We’ve been sitting there for at least 25 minutes watching people come up and ask the same questions over and over – is this the shuttle? No – it’s not 5pm is it? sigh. As we get closer to 5, we stand up to get in line, because we know better. Plus there is an older couple who really needs to be in the downstairs seats, and I’m worried about them getting on. We chat with the wife, and I tell her we have a plan. Ed and I will separate and save them seats if they get pushed out of the line. As it turns out, they manage to get on with us and we all get our seats without much hassle. Phew. That could have been ugly.
Then its just the 45 minute drive back to the ship – the highlight of which is when we go past the Frame – which is supposed to be a monument to the city – and will frame the skyscraper outline. There is a whole controversy around it though because the architect who designed it, and won the competition for the design, has been thrown off the project and says Dubai has stolen his design. Interesting story – and I did really want to see it, so I’m happy when I can snap a couple of pics from the bus.
Good way to see Dubai – at least in our opinion. It is a cross between Disney, Vegas and any other fakey over the top place you can imagine. Not really our cup of tea – but we’re at least glad we got to see it.
Back aboard, we remain in the cool of our room, then spend a lovely evening in Oceanliners, for the very last time ever. Celebrity is doing away with the upscale extra cost restaurant, replacing it with Qsine and additional cabins. It is such a loss in our eyes – we have had some of the best meals of our lives in these restaurants – without fail, and we think the cruise line is doing a disservice to eliminate one of the best signature dining experiences they’ve ever had. As someone I’m loath to quote would say: “SAD”
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